So how much do some angry gamebros hate Anita Sarkeesian? Enough to send me death threats … for writing about the death threats sent to Anita Sarkeesian.
Shortly after my post on the threats against Sarkeesian went up on Thursday, I got these messages sent to me as anonymous “asks” on Tumblr. These were all in succession, in this order; I’m pasting each one individually instead of the whole bunch at once so you can read them in the order in which I got them. [TRIGGER WARNING: Violent threats; I’m putting them past the jump.]
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There is a certain irony in that last comment, whether or not it came from the guy (and I’m pretty damn sure it was a guy) who sent all the threats that immediately preceded it. It’s pretty clear to me that Sarkeesian has no need to fake anything; obviously her haters aren’t exactly shy about sending death threats to people they don’t like.
And if this is what my inbox looks like for merely writing about Sarkeesian, I can only imagine what her inbox looks like. I suspect she gets threats like these all the time; the reason she called the police about several of the threats she got this week is that the threateners posted her personal information as well.
In the interest of full disclosure: Here and here are screenshots of these messages as they appeared in my Tumblr inbox; I’ve blurred out the personal information of the people sending me cat pics.
Needless to say, I’ve turned off anonymous asks on my Tumblr blogs.
I’m sorry to hear about the threats David.
@childrenofthebroccoli I do hope your kitty gets better soon.
Kitty update: she turned out to be dehydrated ( no surprise, she was barely leaving her hiding spot) and slightly anemic, so they gave her a bunch of subcutaneous fluids and a round of antibiotics, and we just need to make sure she takes her pills and stays inside while they do more tests on her blood. We’re just waiting on paperwork and then we’ll take her home.
cotb- Yay! I’m glad kitty is doing better and that you have a diagnosis.
Goat Simulator amuses me to no end. There’s nothing better than being a goat, headbutting groups of people protesting penis shaped food. Or gas tanks. With gas tanks, the resulting explosion sends you flying through the air.
theladyzombie- ever since I’ve heard of Goat Simulator, I’ve been dying to play it. I was in tears when I saw the trailers it was so funny.
@blahlistic
I’m convinced the just world fallacy is why some women blame victims. There’s a certain self-righteous attitude they have that stands out.
@childrenofthebroccoli
Best wishes for you and your kitty!
Kratos’ manpain issues make Batman look tame.
Catching up:
David, all the internet hugs with extra kitties. I’m thinking of you.
Good riddance to inanitybutt.
Phoenicians, that was All The Win. Please to accept one solid-gold interwebz. (I’m afraid it’s Australian gold but you’ll just have to put up with that.)
childrenofthebroccoli, glad it’s looking up for your kitty!
Let’s see, games: I used to play Tetris and Welltris but can’t seem to find the latter these days. Now it’s just Freecell or Stack The Cats.
Goat Simulator sounds hilarious, though …
@redpoppy sometimes I have to pause it because I get to laughing so hard.
theladyzombie- Ha! Now I really have to get it. I enjoy humorous games.
No, it wouldn’t do ‘any’ good.
The key, the central fact in the whole endeavor, is that you can look at and judge and critique the works, and still appreciate them despite their flaws. As someone pointed out up thread, all works created by human beings are flawed because we are flawed. Still, eyes wide open is better.
The point is that in judging the works, Sarkeesian is judging the works, NOT necessarily the makers or the people who play them and like them. I feel pretty confident (because she’s said as much) that you could walk right up to her and say that, despite the problematic aspects, you still enjoy playing GTA, and you would be astounded to find that her head does not in fact split open to reveal an acid spitting gorgon to flay you alive. If you decided to approach her like a human being. you might even find that she will admit to you that she herself enjoys some problematic stuff, because we all do, only some of us are honest about it, while others get butthurt and spew rage and bile in order to pretend that things they like are not, in fact, perfect.
@insanitybytes22:
So the professionals just blindly believe everything the threat receivers tell them, and don’t do any investigation of their own?
Re: games? OMG I have had to block all access to Doge2048, and Housemate has done me the favor of locking my Civ4 disks in his safe!
You know, about the subject of “real” death threats…
We are all aware that no one will go through with the vast majority of death threats. But how about bomb threats, something quite similar. Compare the amount of times that someone threatened to bomb a school vs. the times that someone actually bombed a school. Most won’t go through with it, but whenever it happens, everything in the school shuts down for the authorities to investigate, for everyone’s safety. They don’t say “Well, it’s not a REAL bomb threat…”
And on the subject of games, I haven’t been playing new games for a while, mainly because I’m waiting to have enough money to get a new hard drive (it turns out that 1 TB is not enough for games when you’re like me) but as people have said, Goat Simulator is amazing. Although I’ve been trying to get this one mod where your goat is Shrek working, but it always crashes when I try to turn it on..
my guess is that 90ish% of the whiners never even watched Anitas videos, just [insert some angry youtuber here]’s rebuttals
Would not surprise me, Wolverine.
Oh noes…I wants Goat Simulator! It just looks like way too much fun…
I wish there was a Bootsy Simulator, too.
Oh no, Our Lady of Feminism, Anita Sarkeesian, will excommunicate us from the Church of Male Tears if we admit to playing the Forbidden Games!
Oh crap, the #feministgamingilluminati will send their Fun Police to replace all my Arkham games with copies of Gone Home and Dear Esther if they find out I’m betraying the cause!
They’re a frenzied mob at this point.
David, thanks for banning IB. I hope she got a decent blog post out of it.
I’m sorry you’re getting threats again. It’s amazing to me that of all the “misandry” out there, this is the hill so many aggrieved dudes want to die on. When some YouTube videos that are vaguely critical of your hobby look like oppression to you, you need some goddamn perspective.
(Will catch up on the rest of the thread later)
@emily: it’s not even that they’re critical of videogaming per se as a hobby. Not once has Anita said anything like “ban videogames” or “ban first person shooters” or anything like that. So well, your point about people needing to get a perspective is well made.
And David, bit late here, but add me to the list of people sorry to hear you’re receiving threats. 🙁
Yunno, it wouldn’t be such a bad thing if these rabid dudebro gamers were forced to play some Dear Esther. It’s such a relaxing game, maybe it would help quiet the rage.
Tangential note, does anyone else think the island where it takes place is modeled after St. Kilda in the Outer Hebrides? I was reading a debate a while ago, and they were going back and forth about which island it could be. St. Kilda is currently uninhabited, scattered with the remains of bothies, so imo, it fits.
At least it’s not modelled after St Kilda in Melbourne, or it’d be full of hipster foodies and pub-rock bogans. 😀
**ducks, runs, and flees from kittehserf**